Parents File Suit In Teen's Overdose

Apartments Did Not Stop Illegal Drug Use, They Say

April 25, 2005|By Missy Stoddard Staff Writer

Concerned that her daughter was hanging with the wrong crowd and using drugs, Angelyn Forsyth gave her oldest child a silver necklace and cross for her 16th birthday on April 10, 2003. Forsyth hoped the memento would be a guardian angel of sorts, protecting her daughter from danger.

Five days later, Kirra Simes lay dead, her necklace adorning the neck of a man who allegedly traded the teen drug-laced lollipops for it.

Kirra's parents this month filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit against Archstone Hidden Harbor Apartments, the Royal Palm Beach apartment complex where Kirra died, along with Jami Lucas and Alan Larson, the two men Kirra's family and law enforcement believe contributed to her death.

The complex declined to comment. Lucas and Larson could not be located.

Several days before Kirra died, Archstone placed a violation notice on Lucas' door, stating that occupants in his apartment were reported smoking marijuana and that neighbors had complained of many visitors on numerous occasions.

"This is not the first time we have received this type of complaint from your apartment," the notice reads.

West Palm Beach attorney Jonathan Levy said that what makes Kirra's death especially egregious is that it could have been prevented.

"Archstone knew drug activity was going on and I don't think it's reasonable to keep people [selling and using drugs] in an apartment complex where there are children," Levy said.

Though police investigated Kirra's death, no charges were filed. Too much conflicting evidence made it impossible to definitively say who gave Kirra the drugs, Assistant State Attorney Lanna Belohlavek said.

Autopsy reports indicate Kirra died of an accidental drug overdose. In her system were cocaine and fentanyl, an ingredient in the prescription lozenges on a stick that Kirra used that night. Company literature for Actiq states the medication is to manage breakthrough pain in cancer patients who have already developed a tolerance to other opiates. The drug can be life-threatening if ingested by people not taking opiates, according to a product insert. On the street, the lozenges are known as Perc-O-Pops or lollipops, according to the Web site streetdrugs.org.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Detective John Cogburn said he's confident about who provided the lozenges to Kirra, but acknowledged that the prosecutor's burden of proof is much greater than law enforcement's standard of only needing probable cause that a crime was committed.

Kirra and her younger sister moved with their dad to Royal Palm Beach from Daytona Beach in late 2001, Forsyth, said. Just 14 and juggling a new baby and full-time studies, Kirra had anger problems that Forsyth thought might be better handled by Kirra's dad.

"But after she got over there things went from bad to worse," Forsyth said.

Kirra quit attending classes at Royal Palm Beach High School and started experimenting with drugs, according to her mother, who said she repeatedly asked Kirra to move back with her. After an April 2003 phone call from Kirra's grandmother about Kirra's worsening behavior, Forsyth, a nurse, said she decided to head south and try to have Kirra hospitalized under the Baker Act, Florida's involuntary commitment law. Forsyth said Kirra's grandmother told her of her mother's plans.

"Kirra called me up and cussed me out and called me every name under the sun and said I wasn't her mother anymore and hung up on me," Forsyth said. "I had just finished my last shift and was sleeping when I got the call ... that Kirra was dead."

Since her daughter's death, Forsyth has struggled to go on. She has battled alcoholism and depression but said she has been sober for four months. She is studying to be an acupuncturist, hoping to specialize in addiction healing.

Missy Stoddard can be reached at mstoddard@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2895.